The Preacher calls pleasure vanity (2:1), then says there is nothing better than to eat and drink (2:24). Which does he mean?

The chapter has both. "I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure;" he says, and then, "and behold, this also was vanity" (2:1). Of laughter he says, "It is foolishness", and of mirth, "What does it accomplish?" (2:2). Near the end: "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God" (2:24). Two things differ in the words themselves. 2:1 is a test ("I will test you"), and the works that follow are ones he says he made and gathered for himself (2:4-8). 2:24 names God: "it is from the hand of God". In Hebrew enjoy pleasure (2:1) and make his soul enjoy good (2:24) are both the verb see with the word good (tap mirth). And 2:26 says that God gives joy: "God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy" (2:26), where joy is the Hebrew word of 2:1's mirth. The book sets the two side by side, and these notes won't smooth them out. The Preacher comes back to the saying of 2:24 later (3:13, 5:18, 8:15, 9:7).